Who Will Trump Pick For Vice President?: Political Scientist Gives His Take

last year

On "Forbes Newsroom," political scientist Charles Lipson spoke about who he thinks former President Trump should pick for the VP slot.

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Transcript

00:00 Talk about the Republican veep stakes. There are some names being floated around for contenders.

00:06 That would be former President Trump's number two and they are Senators Tim Scott and Marco Rubio,

00:12 North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Congressman JD Vance and Congresswoman

00:17 Elise Stefanik. What's your thoughts here on this reported shortlist?

00:23 It's an interesting shortlist but I can't skip over Christy Noem. I have never seen anything

00:33 like her meltdown. Nothing. I mean I can remember Senator Tom Eagleton being appointed,

00:41 being nominated as Vice President and then having to withdraw after it turned out that he'd had

00:49 in serious mental health treatment. But shooting a dog? Good lord.

00:57 We were talking about how this country is deeply divided. Another moment of unity we saw in recent

01:03 weeks were Republicans and Democrats coming together and being equally disgusted at the

01:08 story of her dragging her puppy and family goat into a gravel pit and executing them with a gun.

01:15 So A) why did she bring this up herself in her book and B) how do you think the apology tour is

01:21 going and C) do you think this crosses her off permanently as Trump's VP? Well let's go with C

01:29 first. C) yes she's she's as dead as that goat and that dog politically. And I would say that

01:41 and the only reason you you could bring it up is either you're tone deaf or more likely

01:49 she thought it was going to get out. I mean it was in the book. So how? But it was a memoir.

01:56 She wrote it. Yeah. Maybe that was a part of her memory she should have erased like Tom Eagleton.

02:04 But the the fact is it once it was in the memoir it was going to come out and the Republicans are

02:12 very fortunate that she wasn't already on the ticket because given all the issues that you

02:18 would like to run on dog killing is not at the top of the list. Let's go back to the serious people.

02:24 I think that too I think that there these candidates all bring something very different.

02:33 Let's start with Tim Scott. Tim Scott I think what he basically brings is I'm nice enough for

02:43 both me and Trump. My niceness is the basic thing. He ran for president and as best I could tell he

02:51 didn't say anything. So that so Trump may have some questions. Trump if elected will be a lame

03:00 duck from the day after election. And so he is going to be looking for somebody who who may carry

03:08 on. His first thing will be who will help me win. But his next thing will be who will make the Trump

03:14 presidency like the FDR presidency or the LBJ presidency one that changes the trajectory of

03:23 the country. And I think his I think his best bets in that regard are at least Stefanik and J.D. Vance.

03:33 Stefanik has really impressed me. I mean look she's an upstate New York congresswoman without

03:41 senior position. And she ousted the president of two Ivy League colleges. And I mean and she did it

03:51 with hard questions that they didn't have answers to. So this is a big issue. And my sense I saw her

04:00 on TV again last night is that she's very capable on the media and she she brings something impressive

04:06 there. J.D. Vance strikes me as somebody who is very much molding himself in the Trump image.

04:16 Now the setback that both that almost all these candidates have is that none of them have

04:23 administered a two car funeral. You know the question is I mean you know you'd like to have

04:31 somebody who's governed a state served as attorney general whatever. That doesn't necessarily mean

04:38 you're competent. I mean look at look at Kamala Harris who was attorney general and just turns

04:47 out to be breathtakingly incompetent. But Trump will also be looking for who will be good in the

04:55 debate against her. And I've got to say especially given that the only reason the Democrats ever have

05:01 a chance now is the huge lead that they have among women. And I would say that at least Stefanik would

05:08 be a better candidate to go up against the cackling vice president than any of the others.

05:17 Although frankly I think that that J.D. Vance would do a great job. Marco Rubio would do

05:24 a great job. He presents a technical problem. Trump would have to change his residence

05:31 because the way the electoral college works. Rubio couldn't change his residence because he's a

05:36 senator from Florida. But the vice of the electoral college cannot vote for a vice president from the

05:45 same state as the president. So Trump would. I don't think that that's something that can't be

05:53 done. Remember George W. Bush was from Texas and so was at the time. So was Cheney and he changed

06:03 his residence. So I just don't. I think it's a parlor game at this point. But but behind the

06:12 scenes Brittany I imagine there's some really serious investigation of all these candidates

06:20 because you don't want to find a Bob Menendez problem.

Who Will Trump Pick For Vice President?: Political Scientist Gives His Take

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